Welcome to Culturs! Where we speak your language.
What does that mean?
Depending on who you are and how you identify, we speak your language by exploring the diversity of cultures and how each person puts their own unique spin on the meaning of ‘culture’.
Depending on who you are, maybe you don’t consider yourself cultural.
You haven’t travelled much, you don’t have friends from different places or maybe you have just stayed in the same region you were born in.
It doesn’t mean you’re not ‘cultural’. There’s plenty of culture surrounding you but you have to look around.
To Kayla Banks, her culture is one that was influenced by her mother who is Caucasian who has Jewish roots and Hispanic roots, and her father who is African American and Native American with Irish roots.
All while growing up in suburban Denver.
She did not travel to get her cultural diversity but instead she was in an environment that encouraged this diversity and a she was equipped with a thirst to explore the difference around her.
The neighborhood that Kayla grew up in “was a very heavily populated Hispanic area”. “My mom also would speak to me in Spanish because she did study abroad in Mexico and learned a lot about that culture and so I grew up knowing a little bit about that and learning some of the language,” said Banks.
Maybe you didn’t grow up in an area surrounded by a culture different than yours. All it takes is a little influence.
“My grandmother who passed away when I was in the fourth grade she was very big on a person being cultured or being educated on the cultures around you and so we would practice and learn about and participate in Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and different ethnic practices,” said Banks.
Depending on your personal views, you don’t even have to participate in these ethnic practices but just taking the initiative to learn about it can go a long way into understanding the culture around you.
“We would go to history museums and nature and science museums to learn about our culture. We would also learn about Native Americans and we would read books on my Native American side and the kind of the traditions that we had,” said Banks.
Kayla’s family is part of the Comanche tribe. “Our tribe was pretty much one of the tribes that were pushed out into Oklahoma so our land is there and my grandma still owns the land that we have up there,” said Banks.
Maybe your town offers some opportunities to explore this diversity and maybe it doesn’t.
For Kayla, it was just being around an environment and a family that has a really deep appreciation of culture and that likes to learn about that and experience that.
Culture – however you take it and package it into your own diverse meaning, it’s always important that you speak your own language. It’s all up to your unique spin on things, just take a look around you.
